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dam-l (Fwd) China to Hire Foreign Engineers




------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 23 Apr 1999 15:48:01 -0700
From:           	Doris Shen <threegorges@irn.org>
Subject:        	China to Hire Foreign Engineers
To:             	irn-three-gorges@igc.org

APRIL 19, 05:16 EDT

 China To Hire Foreign Engineers 


 BEIJING (AP) — Foreign engineers will be hired to
 oversee the construction of the Three Gorges Dam
 because Chinese inspectors are susceptible to
 corruption, a newspaper reported today. 

 Consultants from foreign engineering companies will
 take responsibility for oversight of the project
 immediately, Lu Youmei, the director of the
 government's Three Gorges Construction and
 Development Co., was quoted as saying by the
 Workers Daily. 

 Chinese overseers were too friendly with the officials
 they are supposed to inspect, the report quoted Lu as
 saying. Corruption is widely blamed in China for severe
 problems with shoddy construction on the
 government's massive infrastructure projects. 

 Just last week, the state-run news media reported
 Chinese engineering consultants checked the
 construction of the dam and found it passed strict
 quality controls. 

 But without citing any Chinese consulting firms by
 name, Lu warned they risked losing business if they
 develop ``relationships as close as brothers'' and
 refuse to criticize those they are supposed to be
 inspecting. 

 The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central
 China will be the largest hydroelectric project in the
 world. It has strong backing from Li Peng, the chairman
 of the National People's Congress who is No. 2 in the
 hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party. 

 Negotiations on hiring foreign consulting firms were in
 the final phase, the newspaper reported. 

 More than 1 million people must be relocated from
 areas that will be flooded by the reservoir from the
 new dam. Critics have argued the project is
 ill-conceived because the same goals of flood control
 and power generation could be accomplished with
 smaller, cheaper dams. 

Dianne Murray, Coordinator/Webmistress
Dam-Reservoir Working Group; Ottawa, Canada
Dam-Reservoir Impacts and Information Archive
http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/dams